school attendance

[JanLady]

Just wondering. How strict are the schools about attendance? We wanted to possibly leave a day before the term ends but reading online it seems schools can fine you or call a social worker for it. Is that the case? We get letters in the US for this, but the schools are pretty much used to working parents taking a day here and there with the kids. Just trying to understand the lay of the land...

At our school you ask for the day and give the reason. You then get a lovely polite letter explaining that it will be marked as unauthorised absence.
For our school things are more problematic if you just don't turn up. If they know where the. Hold is there is no cause for alarm.
Oh and if it is not a frequent occurrence

Pressed send before giving example. We had 2 days at the end of the Christmas term (Monday and Tuesday) where we had 10 children missing from our class. 8 of them had told the school ahead of time and 2 had not. There was genuine concern for the 2 we didn't know about.

I believe that our school will find if you've got a week of unauthorised absence. If there aren't safeguarding issues, they won't refer to social services and notifying them of 1 day of unauthorised absence wouldn't be a safeguarding issue. Children not turning up to school with no explanation might be a safeguarding issue.

They can fine you if they want, but might not bother for just one day, especially if you make a case for why it's needed and your kids have otherwise good attendance. The fine isn't huge so many people just accept it as it's usually less than the extra cost of booking flights in the holidays. There was some court case recently where a father challenged his fine and won though (they said it wasn't actually legal to fine parents as long as their children attended "regularly") so I'm not sure whether some authorities have given up fining.

They won't send in social workers/educational welfare for short bits of absence that the school knew about.